Milton community comes together after two sisters slain

Monday

Mar 30, 2009 at 12:01 AMMar 30, 2009 at 3:37 PM

Within hours Saturday of the horrific slayings of two members of a Milton family, students in the Milton public schools and police were meeting with school officials to plan ways to help the students and families deal with the aftermath.

Sue Scheible

Within hours Saturday of the horrific slayings of two members of a Milton family, students in the Milton public schools and police were meeting with school officials to plan ways to help the students and families deal with the aftermath.

“This is very very tragic and it cuts across all grade levels at the school,” said Superintendent Mary Gormley, who has been in public education for 34 years. “You can see in the faces of everyone that they identify with the family.”

Saturday afternoon, Kerby Revelus, 23, was shot and killed by police after he stabbed and killed his two younger sisters and stabbed his 9-year-old sister in their Milton home at 7 Belvoir Road.

The victims were identified as Samantha Revelus, 17, a senior at Milton High School, and Bianca, 5. Sarafina, 9, was taken to Boston Medical Center and is expected to recover from her wounds.

The schools have engaged Maria Trozzi of Boston Medical Center, whom Gormely identified as “a friend of the schools” and a national expert on family and child bereavement. Trozzi works with “The Good Grief Program” which prepares adults in children's lives to offer psychological safety and support in the aftermath of a loss.

At 7 p.m. Monday, there will be a meeting in Milton High School auditorium for students, parents and teachers. Gormley said speakers would discuss “how to make sense of the tragedy, how much to tell children, typical reactions they can expect to see in children, and symptoms to expect.”

Milton High School Principal John Drottar said the loss of Samantha Revelus, a senior at the school, was “a tragedy.”

Kerby Revelus was recently released from jail after serving time for firearms possession, according to published reports.

In June 2006, he was found guilty of carrying a firearm without a license and given a 1-year sentence. He was caught with a handgun in the waist band of his pants in Randolph on Dec. 11, 2005.

He was arrested on Aug. 7, 2008, in Boston for illegal possession of a handgun after a brief armed confrontation with police in Mattapan.